Happy endings

I was thinking about happy endings recently. In real life, if something ends it's usually a sad thing -- a relationship, a job, death. Maybe that's why so many of us love happy endings, even if we grouse that we don't, in movies or TV. I thought of that when I watched recently the final episode of Entourage and the contrived happy endings for HBO's boys who will never grow up. You just don't get things wrapped up in a bow.

Or do you?

We just visited my college son in Iowa City this past weekend. As an aside, OMG, it is so WEIRD to be the parent visiting her college son in Iowa City! I logged in many weekends in Iowa City in my 20s, first visiting my college roomie Mary, who was in graduate school and then med school there -- it was a great escape from the boring town I was living in at the time. Later, when I started dating my husband, we'd pop over there from Des Moines for a weekend and act like overgrown college kids. It was so much fun. Now I'm the mom, haha.

Anyway, the Teenager is doing awesome. No, I don't know what his grades really are so far -- I'm still nervous and hoping he's studying. But he's doing awesome because he's so.darn.happy. :-) He just beamed all weekend as he talked about classes, dorm friends, his new fraternity (gulp),ultimate frisbee. We walked around Iowa City after the Iowa-Pittsburgh game, in which Iowa rallied back from being down 24-3 to win. Amazing. Kids bedecked in gold and black were out in force. A lot of them were hammered. My oldest son was pushing his baby sister in her stroller. He didn't seem to mind hanging out with us -- I could understand if he wanted to hang out with friends after the big game. It was just one afternoon, but it was perfect.

A year ago my son was very unhappy. He wanted to leave his high school and move to his dad's in Iowa. I learned that I would soon be losing my job. I was winding up my first trimester of pregnancy and had felt like total crap. The world looked so gloomy. A year later, yeah, I got a happy ending. I think I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

Oh, and of course I got a run in, on Sunday morning at 5:30 a.m. I ran the strip in Coralville near my hotel. Iowa City folks, I need a better running route suggestion!